The Supreme Court’s on February 7th upholding 2018 amendments to the SC/ST Act set ripples in the country politics leading to a war of words between the ruling and Opposition leaders. In a significant judgement, Supreme Court on Friday said an individual cannot claim reservation as a fundamental right and the government is not bound to provide quota in promotion for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe employees in public jobs. A week after which the verdict led to a huge uproar in the parliament with the Congress leaders alleging the BJP-led government’s hand in it.
It all started off with the Uttarakhand government’s 2012 decision to not implement reservation in promotions, in the state. However, hearing the concern, the Supreme Court stated – “No mandamus can be issued by the court directing the state government to provide reservations.”
While the verdict kicked a big debate in the parliament on Monday, Congress MPs demanded the NDA government to respond on the issue. Though the ruling ministers tried to clear the air, the debate seemed to end with no clear stance of government over the issue. Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot said that high-level discussions on the matter were underway in Lok Sabha. Amid such demands, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh accused the Congress of trying to politicise the matter. He said the Opposition should wait for the government statement on the matter. He also assured that the Social Welfare Minister will soon make a statement.
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Reacting to the issue, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP and RSS that it was in their DNA to end the reservations. “This is the BJP’s strategy to erase reservation. They want to end it. I want to tell the SC/STs, OBCs and Dalits that we’ll never let reservations come to an end no matter how much Modi or Mohan Bhagwat dream of it,” the Congress MP said. On the other hand, the NDA government’s silence stared facing accusing for not condemning the allegations made by Congress.
